Much Love Monday

The hearts in the photo for today's Much Love Monday are indistinct, but they are there! You just have to look carefully, or click to expand.
Sometimes, it seems that looking carefully can be restorative. However, panic or loss of faith in self may make it seem otherwise. In that context, it becomes too easy to zoom in on the imperfections, and lose sight of the general context.
There are times when it can be hard to find the right perspective - but the way to test if we are looking in the right way is to ask if we are looking out of love. If one can feel the love, the perspective is all right. Love is an act - it is not passive, so it does involve work, but the work will not be overwhelming.
My thought for today is connected with looking for the beauty in ourselves, and how to let it thrive, especially during the holiday time.
It may seem sometimes as we gander at ourselves that we are a complicated cross-section of Pollock paint splatters, imitations of replications and related marginalia, Jazz riffs, ballet poise, rainy breezes and the airy layers of a good croissant. I used to feel afraid by my disparate nature... but isn't growth also about the patience of resolution?
For example, consider the development of technology. Remember how enormous radios used to be? How clunky computers and TVs were? As our knowledge of their components has grown, we've been able to make those objects more compact and simplified.
So, just as we begin with manifold components, as we work on ourselves, we have the chance to refine the best aspects of ourselves, showcase them, and simplify. The way forwards is already waiting for us, reaching to envelop us, exactly as we are. May we carry the peace of that knowledge in our hearts.
Today, I love refining what we already possess.

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Greetings

The title of this blog is a paraphrase from the Tao Te Ching (I: XI), about how usefulness comes from adapting empty spaces. It is hoped that something from the empty spaces between these lines - hermeneutically speaking - will be of use to readers. As this is still an amateur blog, it pretends only to suggest. Thank you for visiting. Correspondence is welcome at sthbyvirtueofnth AT gmail DOT com, and you can read a little more about me and the blog here.